Certificate of Citizenship: Why Isn’t a Passport Good Enough?

Posted on July 4, 2007 by Pam Connell

My last blog talked about the importance of ensuring your adopted child’s US citizenship. This blog talks about the importance of being able to prove it. When our daughters’ adoptions were finalized, we immediately obtained passports for them. A passport, I had always been told, was the ultimate proof of citizenship—better than a birth certificate, better than a social security card, better than just about anything. Our older daughter’s adoption was finalized in 2001, just after the Child Citizenship Act took effect. We were told we could apply for a Certificate of Citizenship. None of us really knew what that … Continue reading →

Adopted Children Need New Social Security Numbers

Posted on December 11, 2006 by

If you are about to adopt or have recently adopted, you may need to add one more thing to your “to do” list. After a child is adopted, his name is changed according to your wishes. Obviously, parents want their adopted child to have the family name. But you should not stop there. If it was a closed adoption, you need to also change the child’s social security number. If the number is not changed, the birth parent can find your child by tracing the number. We do not want our birth mother to find us at some future date … Continue reading →